Monday, August 14, 2017

IS THERE OTHER INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE?



                   

Whether summer or winter, we look up into the majestic night sky, with millions of stars twinkling in our eye-sight, and ask, "IS THERE OTHER INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE?"

That's one topic I have thought about ever since I was a small child. Even as a little girl I was a voracious reader. My mother used to regularly get a paperback called Fate Magazine. I would always read it too.

     www.fatemag.com


I had to beg to be allowed to stay up past seven o'clock to watch the original Star Trek series, with Captain Kirk. William Shatner is the actor many of today's children would associate with TV ads for Hotwire.com's cheap travel tickets.


                   
              William Shatner    -  Captain Kirk -  Star Trek  Circa 1960's

Now he's jowly and hefty. But back in the sixties he was sleek and muscular, many young women's idea of a "dreamboat".

Captain James T. Kirk and his sidekick Dr. Spock, furthered many children's interest in science. There was warp drive in their engine to travel faster than the speed of light.

They battled and befriended many alien creatures inside and outside The Federation. It may be from where the roots of "multi-culturalism" sprang.

Surely Star Trek's tenets and technology have sky-rocketed the imaginations of more than one generation to the stars in the hunt for extraterrestrial life.


As an adult, I still read many books in the necessity to balance my Christian beliefs born by the Bible, with the scientific knowledge and technology of today.


Last night again, reading the preface to Paul Davies' book, "The Fifth Miracle - The Search for The Origin and The Meaning of Life", I was propelled back into biology class. In memory, I sat in a hard plastic seat, attached to rows of fake-wooden, vinyl covered desktops, listening in fascination while the teacher almost echoed physicist Paul Davies' words:


"How precisely did life begin? What physical and chemical processes can transform non-living matter into a living organism? This much tougher problem remains one of the great scientific challenges of our age. It is ...currently being tackled by an army of chemists, biologists, astronomers, physicists, and mathematicians.

"On the basis of their research, many of them conclude that the laws of nature, are, to put it bluntly, rigged in favor of life. They expect that life will form wherever conditions permit - not just on Mars, but throughout the universe...If they are right, it will mean that life is part of the natural order of things, and that we are NOT alone." Page 12 




It would be so easy as a Christian to write off any semblance of deep thought on the topic and respond: "That's simple. God created everything."  Don't delve into the deeper issues because that would be dangerous to your faith - heaven forbid!


Perhaps your faith can't stand a little probing. You banish anything that would take you away from standard doctrine because you are part of the unthinking herd, who because they cannot think on their own, revert back to easy catch-phrases and simplistic ideas.


On a jet flight one time I read the most astounding article in the airline magazine. Because it was over twenty years ago, I can't locate the specific article. But there are similar theories splashed all over the Internet and YouTube, that discuss Earth's planetary conditions as being peculiar as to be ultimately perfect for the formation of life.

As David Waltham said in his book, "Lucky Planet", Earth has had an overall stable climatic history. That would be an extremely important factor in the list of determining elements necessary for the cultivation of life on any planet.



"Fine-Tuning For Life On Earth" author Dr. Hugh Ross cites some of the criteria absolutely necessary for a planet to sustain life. The list is so long that I'll name only a few:

1)  " Galaxy size and type"                                                                                                                   

2)  " Star formation history in parent star vicinity"

3)   "Solar wind"

4)   "Quantity of galactic dust"

5)  " Surface gravity"

6)   "Axial tilt"

7)   "Rotation period"

8)   "Magnetic field"

9)   "H3 production - "If too small simple molecules essential for life won't form..."





The article describes specific types of life forms, for example one-celled vs. multi-celled organisms. Some would not count as viable since they don't last long enough to establish continuation. Some of those would include "extremophiles".

These are usually one-celled organisms that can survive in the harshest conditions...whether lava pools and magma, or in the midst of glaciers, or in the ocean's deepest depths.


      

Since many scientists have recently been convinced by the discovery of extremophiles on Earth that life can exist under extreme, unknown conditions on other planets, it has stirred the astrobiology community. Yet, if a life form cannot exist long enough to propagate, and become "intelligent" or "sentient" then it hardly matters.


                               DRAKE EQUATION


Frank Drake's equation describes the possibilities of other life forms springing up on other planets, but so many other factors would have to exist for that life to develop into intelligent communities, technological societies, and space-faring civilizations.

Essentially, any truly intelligent alien civilizations would be so many light years apart from us in not only development, but also so mathematically unlikely to have simultaneous existences, that the  possibilities of extraterrestrial creatures visiting Earth, become highly improbable, despite the UFO phenomenology our culture embraces.


As an "intelligent design" advocate, Dr. Hugh Ross may consider the Genesis chapter 2 account of Adam and Eve as metaphorical. There are some inconsistencies in the Genesis account which would lend credence to this idea.

For one, who were the women that Cain and Seth married and had children with? Surely it could not have been their sisters. Even back to the very purest bloodline, certain genetic abnormalities would have been bound to form. This must have meant there were other human beings on earth for Adam and Eve's sons to marry and procreate with.

If we go back again to the Genesis account of Creator God saying, "Let there be light", scripture seems consistent with "the Big Bang Theory".

If the  quantum universe is made up of tiny vibrating strings or waves of sound, it merely proves God's Word by way of His Voice could have set everything in motion.


Genesis two cannot be a play by play chronology.

In Genesis 2:5 there were "no shrubs of the field [that] had yet sprouted, for the Lord had not yet sent rain upon the Earth".

Therefore there would have been absolutely nothing for Adam to eat.

In verse 2:7 the account continues, "Then the Lord God formed [from the Hebrew word "yatsar"- to form, potter, fashion, make, frame" man, as evidenced by Strong's H335.]

Man in Hebrew comes from the Hebrew word, "Adam", which means "man or men (plural), persons, " and is often translated as mankind, in its usages in the Old Testament.

So this could actually be translated as "mankind" or "human beings", if one accepts the literal translation that implies man collectively.

And then again, "Adam" again comes from a root word H1119, meaning "ruddy", "red", or to show blood in his face, (as when we blush or get angry)...in other words in evidence of showing emotion.

Then, after Jehovah CREATES man, presumably with no place to go or live, if one considers this a chronological account...only then does He, in Gen. 2:8...

"plant(ed) a garden [nata-a], Strong's Hebrew verb H1953, meaning to come from a primitive root. It's definition would be "plant, fashion, fix, establish (often used figuratively) - a garden, H1588 "gan", meaning garden, enclosure, garden of plants, "toward the East in Eden, and there He placed [H7760] "suwm" (to put, set, lay, lay upon, direct toward, establish)...Adam.

Now if God created Adam, but placed him in a garden of young shoots, unless Adam was extremely fond of bamboo, or grass, and this being AFTER he created Adam, then God's newly-made creature must have been famished before he finally had something to eat...waiting for those seedlings to produce food.

That's another reason to believe that this is not an exact, chronological account so much as a recounting of the story for generations of clans and tribes.

In verse 2:9, which if it is chronological we must assume it is sometime even later, the Bible says, "Out of the ground the Lord caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food, the Tree of Life, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."  This sounds like symbolic allegory to me.

Otherwise, Adam is hungrily digging for young shrubs, has little shade and no tree branches to protect himself from the sun, nor to create a soft bed amidst the field.

Of course because God is God He could have caused the plants and trees to spring up instantaneously, but the language used here implies otherwise.

But if this account is not chronological, and therefore probably not literal, we must assume it is a cultural, Hebrew legend, similar to those engendered in many world cultures. Like others, it was retold orally, passed down generation by generation, to reinforce the account of God creating mankind.

THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE LEGEND IS NOT TRUE.

Many legends have bases in fact, far back in the mists of time. Not all legends are myth.


"A myth is a traditional, typically ancient story with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental worldview of the people. The purpose of myths is to account for the origins of something, explain aspects of the natural world or delineate the psychology, customs or ideals of a society."

"A LEGEND IS A TRADITIONAL TALE HANDED DOWN FROM EARLIER TIMES AND BELIEVED TO HAVE A HISTORICAL BASIS."

When you become aware of scripture as also being "literature" , although written by divinely inspired authors, you realize that they used literary devices such as analogy, and many other great writing techniques.

The fact that the Bible in Genesis 2:7 speaks of God creating Adam from the dust of the earth surely shows we have the same carbon-based physical origin, which is the basis of all life on planet Earth.

I believe the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is the inspired Word of God. But a reader must take into account literary devices and cultural settings.


Can we take every single word of the Bible as literal truth? I was raised in a fundamental Baptist background whose answer would be an emphatic "yes"!



I must, for the record state that I do CLING to the Word of God unashamedly, though many of us have been mocked in recent years for doing. I believe in a literal fulfillment of the Bible, and every word of prophecy contained therein.

But over the years, getting to know my Divine Creator Yahweh better, I would venture to say we can take the Bible literally only MOST of the time. If you understand the way especially the first five books of the Bible, the Pentatuch or Torah, were handed down as an oral tradition, and later as a written one, you can see that although Adam and Eve may have been very real persons, their names are SYMBOLIC.


The God I know loves numbers, since there are hidden numeric codes underlying everything on earth, including scripture. These numerical patterns actually connect words and key doctrines together, showing that even over the course of millennia, no human author could have deliberately coded these numbers, behind the letters and sequences of words.

But Creator God also loves words, literary devices, uses humor, wit, irony, poetry and other methods to hone the message to mankind that He wove through the ages, via the psyches of male scribes, prophets and witnesses of history over millennia.


Adam, in Hebrew means "the red earth" according to Strong's concordance, Hebrew word H121". This denotes in the Biblical account that Adam was made from Earth's clay, which is red.

Eve means "life", "living" or the first woman "mother of all living". Again, according to Strong's Hebrew definition H2332 "chavvah".

So it would not be outside of the realm of logic to say that the Genesis account is an ancient cultural meme based on a possible true account.

I know there are some in the church that would count these words as heresy, or a departure from faith. But I am not willing to unhook my brain from my beliefs as so many intelligent and even educated Christians often do.

Those same people would make up some excuse for why Christian women no longer attend church with head coverings as Paul espoused the early church goers to do, in Corinthians.

He also commanded women not to speak in church. Does the majority of the Christian church abide by these laws today? NO. Then we know that not every word of scripture is either applicable in every case, or to be taken as absolute, inviolate law, except perhaps in the case of the Ten Commandments, and "Love thy neighbor as thyself".

Granted, much of scripture has been confirmed by archaeological evidence and historical documentation. In addition, fulfilled prophecy is one of its biggest indicators of veracity. I am NOT saying "Don't rely on scripture". I just mean, read it with understanding. One has to come to know who God is in order to understand the life-breathed words He has preserved for us.

The Genesis story offers a permanent explanation for God's providential hand in the formation of life on Earth, as opposed to some seeded vapor-riding tail on a comet or embedded in a meteor speeding toward our planet.


Granted, during the Bill Clinton presidency scientists claimed that extra-terrestrial life had been discovered in a Mars meteor fragment. However, that determination has always seemed a little 'iffy' to me.


Excited debate still continues to this day over whether the 300-micron-wide carbonate globs are really minute fossils, or if they might be something else. The mineral magnetite was also detected within the meteor fragment samples, by electron microscopes. Apparently the microscopic worm-like "fossils" are labeled "large organic molecules". This could be interpreted as "life". Scientists lined up on both sides of the argument.

An opposition group consisting of chemists and geologists proposed other ways the Mars meteorite material could have formed. Some speculated the existence of "nano-bacteria". Some researchers believed the experiment's slides had been contaminated before examination under the e-microscope.

Dr. Hugh Ross's article, "Fine Tuning For Life on Earth", explains that such minute, pre-life forms, like the ultramicroscopic organisms found in extreme temperatures here on earth, similar to the infinitesimal specimens found on the presumed Mar's rock, could not possibly be considered true, viable life forms due to their overly simplistic nature.


I've also been reading Isaac Newton's "Principia". In the preface on page XI, Stephen Hawking states that Newton is considered the father of the study of calculus, planetary motion, mechanics and the theories of light and color.

Hawking also comments about Newton:


"He secures his place in history by formulating gravitational force and defining the laws of motion in his landmark work 'Principia'.


"There Newton fused the scientific contributions of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and others."


Hawking also says, "Principia,' the first book on theoretical physics, is roundly regarded as the most important work in the modern history of science and the scientific foundation of the modern worldview."


"Principia -On The Shoulders Of Giants - Isaac Newton (edited by Stephen Hawking)


              



 
Yet it is recorded that Isaac Newton spent more of his time studying Biblical End-Time prophecies and Bible codes, than he did on his studies in physics, astronomy, and celestial mechanics!

SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S DANIEL AND THE APOCALYPSE 1773

You can read for yourself online how Newton believed the world (as we know it) would end in 2060.  Newton may have believed that rather than a complete annihilation of Earth, 2060 might be the date of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and His reign during the New Millenium.  

His documents are in the public domain and can be read at the link above, as well as more information at www.isaacnewton.org and ISAAC NEWTON - BIBLE CODE PIONEER .


Newton, like modern day personage Chuck Missler, took an avid interest in Bible codes. These are remarkable numerical patterns underlying the Greek and Hebrew texts of the Old and New Testaments.


      COSMIC CODES: HIDDEN MESSAGES FROM THE EDGE OF ETERNITY

                     


Like Ivan Panin, a Russian mathematician in the 1800's, before our computer-accessible era, Newton discovered key passages in the Bible were connected by humanly impossible numerical patterns, proving Biblical scripture's divine origin.

Chuck Missler, once a military code specialist, wrote his now-classic book, as seen above. He too has been interested in Panin's monumental discoveries, hand-deciphered over the period of his entire life-time.

EVIDENCE OF DESIGN

GOD IS A MATHEMATICIAN

BIBLE NUMERICS EXAMINED


So, Newton's brilliant, scientific mind was able to absorb and accept the principles of Divine Creator, and Intelligent Design.

        www.intelligentdesign.org

As per the Intelligent Design website above, the concept is described as "the theory of Intelligent Design holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection."



The anthropomorphic principles embraced by one of all-time's brilliant scientific minds, must carry some weight.

You will certainly notice that most alien species depicted by artists and science fiction writers for the last century, have described them as bipedal, binocular beings, with one head, two eyes, two arms and two legs. Despite skin coverings of all colors, textures, and materials, the bipedal, upright form signifies the best use of bodyweight, spinal capacity for carrying and working, dual eyesight for anticipation of enemy attacks on either side, along with some form of communication ability.

I have often mused on mankind's arrogance in believing that he is the only life-form in the universe composed up of trillions of galaxies, suns and planets.

Even the Bible describes created beings other than mankind, who exist in other dimensions. Weird creatures with spinning wheels, and four faces surround God's throne, if one believes the Biblical account.

Archangels inhabit the "Third Heaven", a sphere apparently above our physical plane, only accessed by interdimensional portals.

Exactly what kind of "fiery chariot" in the sky, exactly DID pick up Elijah in plain view of Elisha? II Kings 2:11

Consider the possibility that life began on Earth and might therefore spread to other galaxies. Perhaps we are a "Goldilocks" planet for that primary purpose.

Despite the seeming-overwhelming evidence that Earth has been visited by creatures in vehicles not native to our planet, and that pre-Neolithic archaeological remains support theories of Nephilim giants and other mis-shapen creatures having roamed the Earth, we must be willing to examine alternate theories.

In recent years, the Vatican has been preparing for alien visitation and/or disclosure. Mount Graham observatory in Arizona, run by Jesuit priest scientists, use their ultra high tech  L.U.C.I.F.E.R. telescope to ply the seas of the skies. They are anticipating the approach of intelligent alien life.

   
          VATICAN: ALIENS ARE OUR BROTHERS


Also, in May 2008, Director of the Vatican Observatory, Jose Gabriel Funes, was cited in the official Vatican newspaper, "L'Osservatore Romano", as stating that extraterrestrial aliens are our "brothers". He remarked that aliens may not only be more "evolved" than human beings but possibly even superior.

Vatican astronomer, Brother Guy Consolmagno wrote an article explaining his concepts on intelligent life in the universe, saying he would gladly baptize an alien. But he thoroughly rejects both Creationism and Intelligent Design.

            I'D LOVE TO BAPTIZE AN ALIEN



The famous, late, secular UFO researcher, Jacques Vallee', concluded after years of research, that what everyone called ET aliens were actually beings from an alternate dimension.

This viewpoint is gaining popularity.

Currently some leaders of the Christian community, such as Tom Horn, Steve Quayle, and others, believe UFO's are a manifestation of spiritual beings, bad angels, or Nephilim giants. Recorded in ancient texts, sculptures, glyphs, and paintings are accounts of Nephilim beings who co-habited with human women to bear a race of "supermen".

These half-human, half-supernatural super-beings are said to be mythologized as the legendary, renowned Greek and Roman gods of Hercules, Jupiter, Nimrod the Babylonian King, and others whose memories still remain.

These men believe that Meso-American, Native American, and even Middle Eastern and  European accounts of huge giants whose bones have been buried, or exhumed and hidden for centuries, are springing onto the scene again as the cannabilistic Nephilim.

The extra-Biblical book of Enoch sheds some light on this phenomenon - the Nephilim who are said to return at some point at the end of our historical time period.

Horn, Quayle, Alberino and others believe that "disclosure", or the governmental revealing of UFO and alien phenomena, are merely a reflection of proof that spirit beings from the angelic realm will once again emerge from trans-dimensional portals, posing as "aliens". And that these same supernatural creatures may play a role in the rise of the AntiChrist and other end-time prophecies.

I have not yet determined what to think about these postulations. I have always believed that technology and artificial intelligence would play a huge role in the enforcement of the "Mark of the Beast" upon mankind. I never considered that beasts, themselves, would play a role in end time chronology.

With the rise of the D-wave computer and suppositions of "multiverses" there is much to mull over.

Yet, I can't get the ending out of my mind, of the movie series based on Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End".




Even my young grandson, with little training, recognized the alien leader, holding a child's hand on either side, for who he really was.

"It's the Devil!" exclaimed my grandchild.  The large amphibian-like Luciferian character, who had hidden himself from humanity for decades, finally revealed who the inhabitants of the spaceships actually were.

        
Christians are often ridiculed and looked down upon by the rest of the world for "checking their brains at the door", and rejecting science out of hand. But many famous scientific minds throughout history were dedicated men of God. Christianity does not have to exclude science from its purview.

Indeed, to make informed decisions about what is currently transpiring, and what may happen in the near future, given our position on the End-Time prophetic time-table, we need to be able to make some enlightened choices.

The Church at large needs to be a little more open-minded when considering the science and technologies that are shaping our world  - often overnight. We don't have to accept everything. But we do need to get "up to speed" on the realities of our present time , and know how to address the issues at hand.

Perhaps it is Believers in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus), who will take to the stars during the "Millennial Reign of Christ" - Earth's soon-coming Golden Age - if enough of us embrace the pertinent aspects of science from a scriptural worldview.



      www.biblebookofrevelation.com/ch20.htm       www.matthewmcgee.org/millen.html

                
 Zechariah 14:5          Joel 2:1          Isaiah 25:6          Isaiah 2:3          Zechariah 8:3
  

                  Isaiah 66:10                     Revelation 3:12                  Revelation 21:2







































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